When we hear in the Gospel, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me,” we must ask ourselves, what is our cross?  We may get lazy in a world of comfort, or we may ignore the advice of the Church, or we may just be tempted by evil. Either way, life has its difficulties which we know to be our cross. But the Cross of Christ, is power to defeat our temptations. It is power to strengthen our desire to deny our own logic and agenda for Christ and His Church.